Tutorial for Dummies
by fire blade quickclaw
Summary: Are you new? DO you have any idea what it takes to do a story without being pelted by pies? Then come here where I teach you the basics! It is easy and free! I think...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The people mentioned here are not voicing their views. They have been simply used by me for entertainment/advertising/examples. If they find something wrong with that I will a) Go hide b) Beg for forgiveness c) Give them the finger and tell them to screw themselves. Friends will get the B option, people that run Fan Fiction get the a option and anyone else that hates me gets the c option. I hope you enjoy this tutorial.**

That's it! I am sick and tired of these stories that keep popping up all over the Fan Fiction domain. I am writing a small guide on how to write this easy-but-takes-time-to-get-it stories. Honestly, there is some MAJOR crap out there yet some people think they're good. Some have their own intricate little web things, quite fascinating and if you are an oldie on this site like me, you can sit back and laugh at these things. But let's get started shall we? And what better place to start anything but the VERY beginning. YES! When you first decided to sign on with a dream that your story will become SO popular everyone will think you're great.

I'll break it easy to you. Just like those people on Idol or any other talent show, you think you're so DAMN TALENTED you won't change your writing style. WRONG, you are not talented but we can change that! Another fact: For nearly every person here on Fan Fiction, their first story SUCKS the most. My first story sucked so bad I recently deleted it. But we get to that later.

The first thing you ever do when you first go to sign up is you put your details in. I assume you all know your details so I won't continue there. But then you must pick your username! You know, the one everyone will know you by. This is harder than it looks, people! Don't assume any name will do! Pick a name that suits your personality.

For example: I'll use my good friend Jackie Jackie Spicey for this even if I didn't get permission. (Clears throat) As you see, by simply looking at the name, you can tell this person like the character "Jack Spicer". Who doesn't? I mean the guy is cute and brainy yada, yada, yada, yada. Anyone that first looks at that name can guess that, meaning you can easily predict what her stories are about. But of course not everyone has a name like that (If someone has the name Chasie Chasie Youngie I will seriously KILL myself). Let me use another friend of mine named Mad-Hatter L Carol. By this you can guess she like Alice in Wonderland and is most likely to think up some pretty damn good original ideas.

By using these two examples, I hope you can pick a name. Pick one that can help others guess what kind of stories you will write. If you want to confuse the crowd, go check your font. I wouldn't mind a name like Helvetica or Times New Roman… but that is your choice.

Now that we have cleared the issue of the username lets go to the good stuff. Fan Fiction won't let you submit stories for three days so take that time to think of some ideas. From my observations they are three kinds of stories on Fan Fiction:

**One shot: **It's a short story. It has only two main characters with a rising climax that you want people to get gripped by. Don't make these kinds of things to complicated. Stick with two characters and one problem. Just like OCs, too many can spoil the story. One shots are better when they are funny, murder is involved or someone reflecting the past.

**Continuous stories: **The most common of all stories on Fan Fiction. It's the one that has more than one chapter. In these types of things, you can be as complicated as you like as long as no one gets confused. Use as many characters as you want and as many plot holes, as you want. This isn't highly important but don't make the storytoo long or else the reader will slowly lose attention and interest but don't make it too short or you will get annoying emails saying "ARE YOU GOING TO CONTINUE THIS?!"

**Tutorials or Fact Stories: **Stories like this. They are out there to help people or state out the facts of a certain character like "Why does Raimundo have such big muscles even if he is a 14 year old boy?" These require time so you can get your facts together, like writing a report. You are allowed to lie a little bit if you don't agree with something…

Choose what type of story you want. Then, use that little brain god or gods or whatever gave you to think up a plot. Any story can be good even if it's about turd or a random cow in a field. With one shots think up two main characters or in Fan Fiction's case two of whatever-show-you-want characters. You don't always have to have a problem but it spices up the story. Now, I don't mean to be boasting or whatever but I had to do a one shot in my English class and I based it around the Xiaolin characters Raimundo and Chase. It's called "Jack and Jill" and I'm not telling you to go and read it and review it but it shows the basics of a one shot: Two main characters and a problem that may or may not be solved.

In continuous stories, take more time to think this through. One shots take very little time because it's only one chapter and it's done. Continuous stories will have more characters and more plots. The plots have to be intricately linked in some way that will make the reader think "Damn! Why didn't I see that before?" You want people to guess the whole point of the story until the very end. If you want to see an example, I highly recommend "Jack Spicer wants To Take over The World" by Patience's Secretary.

For the Tutorials and Fact Stories, I suggest you do this when you get to know Fan Fiction a bit better. But if you still want to do one all you need is something that makes you mad (For me crappy stories) and go gather information on how you can make it better. Fact stories are more based on someone's life. You are stating out this person's history. This kind of thing needs a bit more creativity that the Tutorial but you still need to gather information is very handy)

You have your plot? You have your characters? Good, we are on our way! But as we all know characters from shows aren't the only option. For that we have invented OC. And OC stands for Own Character. You made this person up you can't get sued for it. But through human stupidity there is also the Mary Sue and the Gary Lu. I'll admit, I don't know much about the Mary and the Gary just that nearly everyone has made one in their lifetime and their only purpose in life is to get married to the character from whatever-show in a really obvious way. I'm not here to tell you how to make the perfect OC but there is a story, which I have forgotten the name of that tells you how to do it. Take a good look at spoof stories like the one written by Sugarmakesmeangry so you can get a good idea of all the Maries and Garys.

Now within those three types of stories lies another type. I call these the "rivers" because certain types of stories go into certain types of rivers.

**Slash: **The gay pairing of the story. Boy on Boy action mostly, which is called lemon and Girl on Girl action is called lime. In the Xiaolin fandom the most popular are the Chack (Chase x Jack), Claymundo (Clay x Rai… Brokeback Mountain anyone?) And Jack and Rai. It may make some people squirm since they are not used to this but I must admit it gets addictive after a while (yes, I'm admitting that I like some slash here)

**Any Character with an OC: **Your favourite character getting it on with your OC. Do I have to say anymore?

**Canon Pairing: **Heterosexual pairings like Rai x Kim or Jack x Kim. Rai x Kim is the most popular of this category.

**CRAZY stories: **Also known as the spoofs, here to make fun of other stories or impersonating movies. These are done just for fun and for a good laugh but CAN be considered as a sort of junk story as it isn't a real story that has a real point. Hopefully this doesn't put you off reading them.

**No Pairings: **These stories have no pairings and are mostly action stories where the author spends too much time doing action scenes than on the other stuff. These stories can be good only if the action scenes are good.

Okay, we have written a story and you have a rough idea in which category it goes under. Now for the summary! I have seen people put the pairing of the story in the summery but I think that kind of ruins the story. I suggest you don't put a pairing up. Another mistake people put up is "CHAPTER 3 now UP!" "Full summery inside" and "Please read and REVIEW!!!" All these are a big NO, NO. The first two take up space and the last one makes you look desperate. Write a small summary of the story that doesn't give too much away but reveals just enough to pull the reader in. Remember, everyone's first story sucks but keep trying again and again.

While we are at this, I'm pretty sure everyone has noticed the massive amount of Rai x Kim. I personally hate the stuff but like all other stories they have to be written well. I once read a Rai Kim story and it was good! It had a good plot even if Rai and Kim were kissing and it was interesting. Remember, if you write a story on Ferris wheels and toilets everyone will like it as long as its out there and well written.

And there! You are done! A few more pointers below:

**READ OTHER STORIES! Don't be afraid to use some of their writing style as long as you don't copy their story and make it your own!**

**Try different things. Don't stay with the same pairing every single time. It gets boring and annoying for the readers.**

**Take every review in mind and thank the people that wrote it. Reviews are good criticism and can help you shape your story. Remember to go and send a little note to the people who wrote the review and thank them for writing. It brightens up people's days.**

**Get inspiration from everywhere! Use South Park jokes in a Xiaolin story! Bring the craziness of Zim to the Simpsons! Make your story interesting!**

**That's all I could think of. If you have any questions or want something else explained don't hesitate!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I was asked to read someone's stories and tell them if they are good. I will get right to it but I'm sort of busy but I will do it! This is basically stuff that I missed out in the first one and some corrections.**

It turns out lemon means massive gay action (sex) and lime means not-so-massive gay action (walking along the beach hand in hand). Gah! Why didn't I see that before? Now onto some reviews.

Eh-em. Reviews are the lifeblood of every story. Too much means that the story is going great and too little means that the story is not-so-great and is dying a horrible death. And that isn't good.

You have written the perfect story! It is perfect in every aspect! It's good enough to be listed in the top ten stories of all time! But then these idiots out there decide to flame you because they can't do a good enough story! And you get tons of people that read your story and decide not to review because they can't be bothered. Let's admit it. Sometimes you really don't feel like writing anything. Everyone does it sometimes… its okay to admit it.

**AND NOW: HOW TO WRITE A GOOD REVIEW!!!!**

First read the story. Believe it or not IT HELPS. Second, go to the bottom were it says SUBMIT REVIEW and press it. A little screen should come up. If one doesn't, de-activate your Pop-up barrier (I always forgot to do that and when I finally did I had 20 review pop-up things)

HERE IS THE HARD PART.

At the bottom of that review screen there is a little passage that says something about well-rounded criticism. I suggest people read that because YOU MUST FOLLOW WHAT IT SAYS. People (believe it or not) like to have those little reviews that say, "The story is great but can you fix up yada, yada, yada."

Flamers do not follow that golden rule; they prefer to… do unspeakable stuff to it. One of my friends here once got flamed and the guy said that story had to be burnt and then the writer had to be thrown off a cliff. Yea I have mentioned this in a chapter of "New York Mayhem" but it deserves to be said again. Do not treat flamers seriously and by flamers, I mean the ones that review saying "This story is crap get it off now." Not the "It's good but fix up your grammar." BIG DIFFERENCE.

**AND NOW: SPELLING!!!!**

The things that ruin most great stories. They are highly annoying because you are getting the bad sensation that the writer is a slight dumbass. That may or may not be true but they are still highly annoying. Hopefully the programs you use have spell check on them. Grammar on the other hand can't be detected by spell check sometimes and EVERYONE has lectured me about my grammar. 

Also if you see a word like this: color or colour, remember that both versions are right. Color is American and the rest of the world uses colour (that may not be true but whatever)

In our next lesson children I will talk about OC and how to make one (like plenty of other tutorials) I know this chapter is shorter than the first one but GIVE ME A BREAK! It's 11 pm, I'm writing two other stories and my feet are cold… so I will leave you with a couple more pointers.

**Music can help in making a story. I swear on this like it's the Bible but listening to:**

**-Pirates of the Caribbean help with action scenes**

**-My Chemical Romance, The Used, Linkin Park, Good Charlotte and 30 Seconds to Mars help with those angst scenes. Some songs help with action scenes**

**-Green Day music helps with car chases especially "St. Jimmy" **

**-Lily Allen helps with those humorous little break-up scenes**

**-Gwen Stefani can have some songs for serious break-ups**

**-Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Hinder can help you with making some… love scenes (mostly under M+ category)**

**Look through Deviant art. You can find some great inspiration and you could just start your own account… don't look at me I'm not helping you out there.**

**Look beyond the Xiaolin Fansite. Marvel is fun to read and so is the Grim Adventures Fansite. Going to the Avatar Fansite doesn't count since they both deal with elements so there is no big step forward there!**

**Remember, questions will be appreciated and if you see any mistakes here (other than grammar I'm sick of GRAMMAR!) point them out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Oh god! Before I start today's lesson I have to rave about a couple of things I need to get off my chest:**

**A: I saw the new My Chemical Romance video clip. It is the song "I Don't Love You" and it is pretty emotional. There is this person that cries BLACK tears and Gerard has dyed his hair black again! I liked the blonde look…**

**B: The Used are SO copying My Chemical Romance! Bert has DYED his hair blonde JUST like Gerard! One thing I have to say Bert, you dissed the guys that performed in a tour with you, calling them crap and telling fans to not go and watch them play. Why did you go and copy their hairstyles? Seriously, if anyone wants to check Bert's old hairstyle and Gerard old hairstyle, they are the exact SAME. But the new song is cool.**

**C: This takes the cake! I was watching a show and a comedian came on. These are the words of Paul McDermont, an Australian comedian:**

"**Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the show. Before we start the news for the day, as we speak, they are casting the roles for Spider-man: The Musical. (I'm not kidding here peoples; they are making a musical for this. Oh, the SHAME!). It seems the ACTING bug has bitten Peter Parker and Dr. Octopus will get to dance the eight-legged can-can in the end. Do you want to guess who will be doing the music? No it isn't Andrew Lloyd WEBBER. It is BONO! The major song will be "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For… But my Spider senses are tingling" and the new song "The Spider-man is Coming"."**

**I am not kidding here people they are actually doing a musical. Mad Hatter told me they might make 7 movies out of Spider-man and her and I agreed that was taking it to far. But no… THIS musical has taken it beyond Mars. A word of advice to the producers of the musical; the trilogy isn't all that bad. The first one was good, the second was fantastic and people had mixed opinions about the third. Some hated it, some loved it and even one critic has given it two stars when another equally acclaimed critic gave it four. Don't ruin the image of Tobey, Alfred, James and every other person that took part in the films. In my opinion, the third movie already did… No I haven't watched the movie but people told me so much about it, I pretty much know the story. Anyway onto the lesson.**

Today's lesson is the OC! OC, as I have said before, stands for Original or Own Character. And as everything else in this tutorial, it has certain rules it has to obey. OBSERVE.

**The Look of the OC**

First, decide if you want the OC to be an animal or human. For today, we will have a human. I will use my own OC as our example. Everyone say hi to my OC Jodi.

Jodi: Hi.

Very unenthusiastic of her. But we will talk about personality later. Here are the things you want to have in mind when planning your OC.

_Height, Sex, Age, Length and Hair Colour, Eye Colour and Clothes they wear._

Here is an example. Remember this is in your brain. In a story you don't go and write that your OC is 5'2 okays?

_Name_: Jodi _Sex_: Female _Age_: 16 _Hair_: Blue and reaches the waist _Eye Colour_: Blue _Clothes_: Either a Japanese school uniform or denim blue jeans with a white top and a blue leather biker jacket. See? Easy and simple, this is the information you give out in your story.

I have broken a rule here. When making an OC use a natural hair colour. I know mine is blue but honestly she just wasn't the same with another colour. Speaking of rules here are the ten GOLDEN rules on making an OC.

_**THE TEN GOLDEN TURD RULES OF THE OC**_

_**Use a natural colour for hair and eyes. The only exception is if your character is a demon or something not human.**_

_**Do not make your OC do things that a normal body can't do. If you can't do it then sure as hell your OC can't either. Unless its one of those special ability thingies.**_

_**An OC is your flag bearer. Treat it with respect.**_

_**Always use your OC as a dummy. For example: Would Chase like to be thrown of a cliff? Let's try it with Jodi first!**_

_**Make your OC personality believable. If you are going to have a crazy person running amuck in your story, please give a good reason to it. Because your OC felt like it is not a good enough excuse.**_

_**Your freaking OC is NOT king of the world. Do not make it invincible it is not GOD. We have the Greek Gods for that.**_

_**Do not make your OC a stereotype. Make it interesting.**_

_**Do not make it have an obvious crush on a character. It will become a Mary-Sue.**_

_**Your OC is a human. Therefore it needs to feed and go to the toilet.**_

_**Your OC is a human. Therefore it has emotions.**_

_**Did I stress out your OC is human?**_

Memorise this peoples. Now onto the personalities, it is splitinto three groups.

**Good**

We all know what good is. The goody-two shoes, the heroes and the sweet guys. Good fights for, well the good of mankind. It fights for the rights of the poor and weak and defies the evil intentions of the wealthy. A few pointers below.

_Enough with the heroes with the tragic past, it gets lame after a while_

_Not all heroes have muscles and brains. The weak are as good enough candidates for good as people with the godly looks._

_Good doesn't always triumph. Evil can have its way._

**Evil**

The juicy side, I think. You can be imaginative here, because evil can do anything it wants. Evil doesn't necessarily mean taking over the world. Your evil OC could be set on destroying it or destroying all that is good or it could be just out for revenge.

_Make it act like a criminal. It's funny for a villain to be obsessed over bunny rabbits but if the villain is also obsessed with gardening then you might be overdoing it._

_Get inspiration from real-life villains. Nothing is as chilling as the real deal._

_Torture as much as you want! You want to be a bad ass!_

**Neutral**

The people that don't know where they stand or those who don't give a rats ass as to what is going on around them. At times they are hard to create because you want someone that is either innocent or one of those villain\'s lackeys since they don't play a big part. I have no pointers for this thing so you have to rely on other means, use your brain, it is there for a reason.

Few other things to keep in mind:

**Tragic OC pasts are good but not too tragic. We are not making a soap opera out of this.**

**When giving your OC a power, do remember that it is still a mortal being. Not God. MORTAL.**

**I'm probably going to get killed for this but if you are writing a story and you have two of your own OC pairing up what is the point of it? THIS IS FANFICTION! Go to fiction press were they give you extra credit for thinking up something imaginative.**

**That is all for today's lesson. Our next lesson will be about "What makes a great story?" if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. Also, a person asked me to read their stories. I would just like to say that they were good and even though I haven't reviewed I found them very interesting. May I suggest doing something other than Raimundo (this could be my hating-Raimundo half speaking)?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Students I am back! Did anyone miss me? (Silence)**

**I hate you all. Anyways today's lesson is "What makes a great story?" But before I explain I would like to say something to a review that corrected me twice. Big thanks to Nishikaze for pointing this out even if your review did make me feel like the biggest idiot in the world. I still appreciate this review.**

**LEMON means heavy graphic action regardless if its gay or not and LIME means not-as-graphic action.**

**I think that is right…**

**Anyway onto the lesson!**

Okay, what DOES make a great story? EASY! Something the reader is likely to… like. A story is like advertising, it is appealing to a certain group of people. You write Jack x Kim, people who like Jack x Kim will flock to your story like bees to a flower. One little problem, how will your audience know it is a Jack x Kim story? THEY DON'T and YOU won't tell them until they have read your story.

A few chapters back, I have mentioned what you don't put in the summary of your story. Pairings is one of them.

Example:

_**Jack has got a problem and goes to Kimiko for help (Jack x Kim pairing)**_

Well, that just ruined the story! We know they are going to end up kissing each other in the end! WHAT IS THE POINT OF READING THE STORY?!

But if we did this:

_**Jack has got a problem and goes to Kimiko for help**_

Well, we are assuming this will be a Jack x Kim story but who knows? Kim might go off and have sex with Raimundo instead or it turns out Jack went to the girl just so he could have some advice on something naughty to wear for Chase. The possibilities are endless!

By not putting things like pairings in the summary people are forced to read what you have to write. Sure, it might force an innocent to read a slash story but hey, you might have gained a follower! But if you want to warn the audience of slash that is in your story, don't write it on the summary; write it on the first chapter of your fic. That way people know what they are in for and they can leave with their brains intact.

What else makes a good story? The descriptions, vocabulary and all that jazz. By having a large vocabulary, you can add great detail to your story and make people feel they are part of it. Read other stories so you can expand it or you could just go and memorise the entire thesaurus but I recommend reading other stories.

Another thing you can do on improving your story is checking it over for grammar and spelling errors. It is the most annoying thing ever to encounter these things in any story. This isn't a chat room! You are killing the English language! HAVE MERCY ON THE LANGUAGE OUR ANCESTORS SPENT PERFECTING!!!

Eh-em. Onwards with the lesson! There are many things that could make a great story but it's those with the good plot lines that make your story great. Nishikaze also mentioned that she wouldn't read ANY story with a silly summary. You can bet your ass that if you have a crappy summary and crappy story line only idiots will read your stories. But the horrible truth is that idiots degenerate over time and then no one will read your crappy stories! DUDES! STOP GOING WITH STORIES EVERYONE ELSE IS CHOOSING! I had to suffer a day with only Rai x Kim stories and two seemed to have the same plot! So maybe in your little minds this is the best pairing of all time but give it a break! As an ancient saying once said 'Be a salmon, don't go with the flow', write other ideas down. Sure, another writer may have a good idea and you decide that if that writer is going good so will you if you do the same story but the readers will suspect something and you will be blamed from either the writer you copied or the readers that worship the writer's stories as a plagiarist.

Here is a little hint from me: Pretend you have writers block. Then you can have some comfort to sit down and write a list of ideas that aren't the same with your current stories or others. I have done it thousands of times! But I usually do it because I have homework.

Speaking of writers block I'm getting one now. What else makes a great story? TOO MANY!! So here is a list of what I think makes a great story: 

Good plot

Good idea

Appropriate characters (as in do not use Master Fung as a main character in an action drama)

Good descriptions

SOMETHING OTHER THAN ROMANCE HAPPENS (smut is excluded)

Worth reading dialogue

Things we don't expect…

There is probably more but obviously that is for you to decide. Now students of Fan Fiction I do have some homework for you! I don't want to hear any grumbling, you are to do this! Now after three days after this chapter is uploaded you are to upload a small one shot. There is one rule to this: It has to be a mystery story. If you are up for this challenge I will do anything you want (giving you personal details excluded). You are to use everything your sensei has taught you… If you want to take part in this tell me in a review.

Before I leave, I have read another review about Song Fics. Tennisgurl has asked about Song Fics so I intend to answer her question.

A Song Fic is a story that has music lyrics of any kind in it. Unfortunately, it is also illegal to have this sort of story written. If any one goes to check the rules when you upload a new story it clearly states that you can't have a story that includes music lyrics (unless you are smart enough to make up your own song). But we are all rebels so here is what I have to say about these sorts of fics.

Make sure you choose an appropriate song to describe your story. If it is a car chase, no point in putting 'How to Save a Life' by The Fray, it will look stupid and so will you. But if it is a car ACCIDENT it will sound a whole lot better. The music must suit the mood of your story.

Just as pairings, do not mention your story is a Song Fic. I'm only saying this because if one of the bosses of Fan Fiction comes waltzing in the site and sees a Song Fic, which is going against rules and regulations, you are probably going to be blocked.

If you are a wimp but still want to do a song fic, you don't have to write the lyrics down. Simply state before starting your story that it sounds better with this song.

Another reviewer asked if you could listen to Ludacris as you write your stories. OF COURSE YOU CAN! Whatever gets you motivated into writing is acceptable! I do not question you if you choose to write a story to Beethoven's 5th symphony but I will question your sanity if you chose Paris Hilton.

So long and thanks for the fish! Remember if you want to take part in the competition, say so in a review.


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